In one of those delightful coincidences, we had three syrahs back to back in my brown-bag group. We don’t know what anyone else is bringing, so this was by chance (once we had six or seven pinots), though the folks who brought the second and third wine did feel theirs should come later among the reds. They were right. (These were the fourth through sixth of seven wines.)
Sadly, these were all too ripe, to the point where the syrah character was diminished.
2005 Edmunds St. John - Parmalee Hill - Sonoma - Syrah: I tasted this on release and went in an order with Jay Miller. I last opened a bottle about five years ago and found it surprisingly fruity – plummy, to be specific. It has not improved. I have little experience with ESJ Parmalee Hill, but this was out of keeping with what I know of Steve Edmunds’s wines. Dark in color, the nose was mostly blackberries. In the mouth, there were ripe black cherries – like the ones that fall off the pits. Grapy in a pleasant way, though a bit surprising for a 15-year-old wine. Rich and spicy, too. Several people guessed Hermitage, though it seemed distinctly New World to me. It remained a bit disjointed, particularly on the finish, where the alcohol and tannin stood out later (five hours after decanting). Not the savory kind of syrah I expect from ESJ. 86 points for me.
2010 Clarendon Hills - Clarendon - Bakers Gully - Shiraz: Gag me! Port on the nose, then blackberry pancake syrup. Maybe a streak of blueberry syrup on the nose. In the mouth, sweet and porty (cooked fruit) and alcohol. (Labeled 14.5%.) Pretty much undrinkable for me. Later it tightened up, the fruit receded and the tannin came to the fore. Oh, joy! On the finish, tannin and alcohol later.
What do I mean when I say, “This wine is undrinkable?” (to answer the question raised in another recent thread)? This kind of wine. From a laboratory standpoint, I’m sure it’s sound and clean, but it’s so overripe that all varietal character has been lost (I thought it might be a zinfandel) and it’s unbalanced. I do not want this in my mouth or gullet.
I dumped most of mine though, with a certain sense of dread and Schadenfreude, I went back for more later, after everyone had left, just to confirm that this was as bad as I thought originally.
I don’t know how to put a wine like this on a the conventional 100-point scale.
2010 Alain Voges - Cornas - “Les Vieilles Vignes”: Inky, almost opaque. Slightly skunky/sulfuric/reduced on the nose, though that didn’t particularly bother me. It was the first tip-off that this was a syrah. Some ripe black cherry came up after that. After tasting, I wrote: “Big, but less disgusting syrah [compared to the Clarendon Hills before it]. Very ripe, chewy, fruity, soft tannins.” I guessed a syrah of 10-15 years, but I wasn’t sure where it was from. With air, it got tougher, more tannic. It’s so ripe that the fruit is imprecise, and not nuanced. No lift. On the finish, the fruit seems very ripe, and a bit out of balance, and there’s a trace of heat. This seems like a Cornas for New World syrah lovers. Not typical at all of the appellation, and not particularly interesting. 83/84 points for me.